Encyclopedia of World Biography on Sundiata Keita

Sundiata Keita (ca. 1210-ca. 1260) was the founder of the Mali empire in West Africa. He is now regarded as a great magician-king and the national hero of the Malinke-speaking people.

Sundiata, or Sun Djata, was also known in the Tarikhs (Moslem chronicles) as Mari Djata. Keita is a widely used family name. He is to West African history what King Arthur is to English history, in that both are popular figures about whom very little is known with certainty. Most knowledge about both has come to us orally from traditions passed down through the centuries. Moslem chroniclers wrote very little about Sundiata because he was not a devout Moslem. Much of what was written can be regarded with some skepticism because it is very difficult to separate fact from legend in such old oral traditions. We can, however, be sure that he was a real historical personage.